Pursuing
a long-time interest, I started backpacking four years ago, beginning
with
day-hiking and single overnights.Currently
I’m mostly a ‘weekend warrior’ and mainly hike and backpack in the
hills and valleys of West Virginia, but have section hiked longer parts
of the southern portion of the Appalachian Trail (AT) the past two
years.My usual
shelter is a hammock but I am currently testing a Tarptent. In general
my backpacking style is
lightweight and
minimalist, and I try to cut as much pack weight as I can without
sacrificing
warmth, comfort, or safety.

Product Description:

The Makaira Metalworks S.P.S. Stainless
Pack Stove consists of five plates of stainless steel that interlock to
form a firebox with vented floor and walls, along with an integrated
pot support. The
S.P.S. can be used to burn wood or other foraged materials, Esbit or
similar solid fuel, or used in conjunction with an alcohol
burner. The stove came with a two page set of diagrams and
instructions, and a cream colored cloth storage sack with a drawcord
top. One page of instructions consists of step by step diagrams
of assembling the stove. The second page has a diagram showing
where to place the bottom plate to use the stove for various types of
fuel, instructions on using the stove with wood, and tips and tricks to
start fires.

The stove is art-like in appearance, with symmetrical vents on the four
sides, small rectangular vents on the top and bottom corners, and a
grid of square and rectangular vents on the bottom. Although I
looked at the diagram as I assembled the stove for the first time,
assembly was fairly intuitive and simple. The stove is assembled
by sliding the tabbed slots on the side pieces together to connect
three sides, then sliding three tabs on the floor piece into the sides
at the appropriate level for the type of fuel being used. The
fourth side of the floor does not have a tab, which allows the fourth
side piece of the S.P.S. to slide in place once the rest of the stove
is assembled. I assembled the stove several times, and the only
thing I have trouble with is keeping all four tabs on the sides of the
final piece
lined up correctly as I slide it in place. This usually takes me
a couple of tries, as invariably I miss properly aligning one of the
tabs and end up having to take the last piece off and re-do it to make
sure it is properly seated.

The stove has 3/4 in (2 cm) tabs at the top and bottom that serve as
legs and pot support and allows air to flow both under the stove and
under the pot. In wood burning mode, the pot sits approximately 3
3/4 in (9.5 cm) from the bottom of the stove floor; about 2 3/4 in
(7cm) from the floor in alcohol stove mode; and about 1 3/4 in (4.5 cm)
from the floor in Esbit mode.

Preliminary
use:

The
stove arrived the day before I was leaving for a weekend trip to Dolly
Sods (in the eastern West Virginia mountains), so after quickly reading
the instructions as I packed for my trip, I tossed it in a quart size
Zip-lock freezer bag in my pack and headed out the next morning without
a chance to fire the stove up at home. (The manufacturer does
recommend testing the stove out several times before using it on a
hike.) I did not feel a need to carry the instructions, as they
are simple and intuitive. The stove packed up easily and could be
stuffed anywhere in my pack since it is so thin and small. I
ended up sliding it down the back of the pack in front of my water
bladder.

I normally carry a few Spark-Lite Tinder-Quik Firestarting Tabs, a
couple of small boxes of wooden matches (including a few
waterproof/windproof storm matches) in small zip top plastic bags, and
a small lighter in my kitchen and emergency kits, and did not add more
fire starting materials to my pack.

Camp the first night was made in a red spruce thicket. The spruce
needles are tiny, and were damp. I gathered a few of them, some
small spruce cones, a few blades of dried grass, some small twigs from
dead branches off blueberry bushes, and some other small dead wood I
found. All were gathered from the ground, except the dried grass
and dead branches from the blueberries, which I broke off the dead
areas of the plants. The largest pieces were approximately the
same diameter as a pencil. I packed the stove about 2/3 full of
the smallest pieces (the manufacturer recommends 3/4 full) and added
the larger pieces to fill the stove near the top of the main firebox
(see photo at top of this report). I had a bit of trouble getting
a match into the side openings of the stove to reach the tinder without
putting the match out in the process. I had not added any fire
starter at this stage. After a few unsuccessful attempts at
lighting the tinder, I pulled the larger sticks out of the stove,
removed some of the tinder, and added a fire starting tab, lit it with
a lighter, and then added the rest of the tinder and the larger sticks
once the blaze was going. The photo in this section shows the
resulting fire and my pot of water as it is being heated. The
water took several minutes to boil (unfortunately I started timing the
process once the fire was started but forgot to check the final result,
so I will have to report later field results for boil times).

Quite a
bit of unburnt residue was left in the stove after the fire went out,
as shown in the photo to the right.

With the stove being made of substantial stainless steel plating, I was
somewhat apprehensive that it might take a long time to cool down so I
could pack it away, but this proved to be a needless worry. The
stove was fully cool by the time I finished eating my meal. Since
I needed to boil water for breakfast the next morning and rain was
threatening, I left it assembled and gathered enough foraged materials
for another fire, placing it in my Tarptent vestibule so I would have
dry fire materials for the next morning.

Sure enough this worked well in spite of heavy rain that night, and I
prepared to fire up the S.P.S. the next morning for boiling water for a
cup of instant cappuccino and freeze dried egg meal.
Unfortunately, the stove wasn't sitting exactly level when I added my
pot of water to the top of the stove to test for levelness before
lighting the fire. The pot slid off the stove, spilling a cup or
so of water onto my nice dry fire materials. I'm not really a
very good morning person, so after a couple of half-hearted tries at
lighting the soggy materials, I just gave up and borrowed a canister
stove from one of my hiking companions. I learned a valuable
lesson though - if testing levelness, make sure the pot is empty at
first (or hold it in place and make sure it's level before letting go).

This was the soggiest trip I've experienced so far, with rain most of
the next morning, a short dry spell in the early afternoon, followed by
a threatening thunderstorm and more rain before we reached the second
evenings camp. The trail was rocky, and where it wasn't rocky it
was muddy, with water streaming down the trail in areas. After a
rough nine miles (15 km) or so of hiking, including some
semi-bushwhacking to a lovely vista, I was too tired to hassle with
trying to find dry materials in the soggy landscape. Fortunately
I had packed a couple of tabs of FireLite solid fuel tablets
(similar to Esbit) and used that to boil water for dinner and the next
mornings breakfast. The design of the stove meant the solid fuel
had plenty of air for combustion and it burned well, bringing two cups
of cool stream water to a full boil well before the 14 gram size
tablets were consumed. Below is a photo of the stove being used
to burn a solid fuel tablet.

Preliminary
impressions:

So far, I find the stove very easy to assemble and carry. It
packs compactly enough in my pack that I can store it almost anywhere;
due to its weight it does have a tendency to slide down to the bottom
of the pack. After firing, the stove has a sooty residue, as I
expected. Some of this comes off on my fingers during stove
assembly/disassembly, so it will be necessary for me to carry a few
wipes or other means to clean my hands after using the stove, and pack
it in a separate plastic bag to keep my other pack items clean, as
expected. It also leaves a sooty residue on the bottom of my
pot. In the early firing, I found that once I had used the pot
and then set it on the ground, small bits of evergreen needles or leaf
litter tend to stick to the bottom of the pot and catch fire the next
time I use it, which has not proven to be a problem. Not all of
the residue cleaned off the pot when I scrubbed it with a nylon scrubby
at home, but the majority did.

The stove is too large to support my Foster can pot, but works
perfectly with my 5 3/8 x 2 5/8 in (14 x 6.5 cm) AntiGravityGear 3 cup
(.7 L) cook pot, which I plan to use with the stove for the duration of
the test period.

Most of my preliminary concerns about this stove relate to skill.
I find I will need to hone my fire building skills. I plan to
test whether I can actually fill the stove with tinder and fuel and
fire it up that way in the future, which will involve learning if I can
actually light the stove from the bottom through the small vent holes,
or whether I will need to start a small tinder fire which I can light
from the top, and add fuel later each time. I also will need to
learn whether I need to carry some dry tinder along, or whether I can
find the energy to forage for dry fuel in a soggy setting on rainier
trips. Having the option to use Esbit type solid fuel is nice,
but there are lighter Esbit type stoves out there if this ends up being
my only solution.

In the early wood burning test, I was slightly unhappy with the amount
of partially burned residue left in the stove, and hope to find out
whether this is typical or whether adding more tinder and using better,
drier sources will result in less residue.

Finally, since small ash and tiny coals drop through the bottom of the
stove, unless I am firing the stove in a pre-existing fire area, it may
be necessary to carry some sort of fire plan or heavy foil to use in
areas that are not already charred, since I try to leave minimal impact
on areas I camp. I'll be testing a few materials to see what
works best for this and hope to have a good solution by the time of my
field report.This conclues my Initial Report.

Field Report - October 2007

Field Conditions:

In early
September I used the Makaira Metalworks S.P.S. Stove on a 27 mi (43 km)
weekend backpacking trip in
the Laurel Fork Wilderness in eastern West Virginia. Elevations
were around 3000 to 3500 ft (900 to 1100 m), and temperature in the 50
to 75 F (10 to 25 C) range, with partly cloudy to sunny skies, no
precipitation, and moderate humidity. Trails varied from wide and
smooth rail trails, to rough and rocky narrow paths, and occasionally
disappeared almost entirely into thick meadows full of waist high
grasses, with several creek crossings. Camp the first night was
in a semi-established site (due to our planned site being already
occupied by the time we got to camp), with no fire ring, lots of small
trees and a lot of dry leaves and small dead branches on the
ground. Camp the second night was in an established campsite with
a fire ring, some dry leaves and some dry dead branches. Trees in
both areas were mostly deciduous.

In mid-September I used the Makaira Metalworks S.P.S. Stove on a short
(approx. 4 mi/6km) overnight backpacking trip in Watoga State Park in
southeastern West Virginia. Temperatures were in the 40 to 70 F
(4-21 C)
range. The campsite was a maintained grassy knoll, surrounded by
mostly deciduous trees.

In early October I used the S.P.S. on a 30 mi (48 km) weekend
backpacking trip in the Cranberry Backcountry in southeastern West
Virginia. Temperatures ranged from around 50 F to 80 F (10-27
C). Conditions were mostly dry, although there were a few off and
on sprinkles after we went to sleep the first night. The first
night's campsite was a small established site near a stream, with an
old fire circle that was partially disassembled. The second night
we camped on a ridge, 'dispersed' style in a non-established
area. Both areas had a lot of dry leaves in and around the
site. Trees were mostly deciduous in the camp areas, although we
passed through some areas of spruce or pine trees and rhododendron
thickets, as well as a few small meadow areas.

Field Use:

On the Laurel Fork Wilderness trip, I used wood in the S.P.S. for three
meals; one breakfast and two dinners. I used Esbit style tabs in
the stove for breakfast the last day. On the Watoga State Park
trip I used wood for one dinner and one breakfast meal, and we used the
stove for a 'Leave-No-Trace' style campfire for over an hour before
retiring for the night. On the Cranberry Backcountry trip, I used
wood in the stove for both evening meals, Esbit style tablets for one
breakfast, and ate a cold breakfast the last day.

I pretty much exclusively limited 'cooking' to adding boiling water to
a dehydrated or freeze-dried meal. The S.P.S. works well for this
type of 'cooking' because I don't have to worry about temperature
control. A hotter fire with higher flames just means my water
boils faster. Boiling times have ranged anywhere from a fastest
time of about 3 minutes to a longest time of about 7 minutes (measured
once a fire is established enough that I feel comfortable it won't
easily go out). Generally it takes about 5 minutes to bring 2
cups (about 1/2 liter) to a full boil once the fire is
established. The time to build an established fire greatly
varies, depending on the fuel available, and especially the type of
tinder available. With dry grass or very fine dried plant stalks,
the fire will start quickly, but if all that is available is dry
leaves, it may take several minutes and a lot of blowing on the leaves
and small twigs to get the fire established.

In the
areas I've camped it has been pretty easy to find plenty of fuel.
I have not found that I can get the stove burning very well when
following Makaira Metalwork's instructions to fill the stove 3/4 full
of leaves or other tinder and 1/4 full of fuel sized sticks. What
I've found works best is to loosely fill the stove 3/4 full of leaves
or preferably dry grass or very fine dry plant stalks and a few very
fine sticks, then gather all my fuel, and break it into 3-4 in (8-10
cm) long pieces and place those to the side of the stove. I then
take a piece of Spark-Lite Tinder-Quik Firestarting Tinder Tabs, fluff
the ends out, and push it down into the center of the dry leaves, light
it, and let the fire get started. Then I start adding a few
pieces of fuel until the fire is well established, add a few more
pieces, and place my pot over the flames. Sometimes the amount of
fuel I've added is enough, but often I need to push a few more pieces
in under the pot, which I can do as long as they are pencil sized and
I'm fairly careful as I push them in.

A small pile of sticks (about two handfuls) is usually ample, although
I gather a few extra in case. I have found that hardwoods burn
more completely than softer woods such as pine or spruce, as shown in
the photo to the right, where most of the wood has burned except a few
sticks I added as the fire was dying down.

The stove has been very easy to use with solid fuel (Esbit style)
tablets. Usually I just flip the stove that I assembled for a
wood fire at night upside down, and the floor is then in the proper
position for burning Esbit. I've found these style tablets don't
light all at once, so I just pick up the tablet, hold a lighter to one
end, and once it's going well I place it on top of the stove and add my
pot of water. In the conditions I've experieced so far, I haven't
even needed to add a windscreen. About 5 minutes or less with a
14 gram tablet, and I have a pot of boiling water.

Impressions so far:

The stove seems to provide ample ventilation to keep the fire burning
once it is established, but I have some trouble getting a lit match
down into the center of the stove to start the fire, and I would like
to see at least one larger opening in the side of the stove to
facilitate this. I have not had much luck lighting the stove with
a lighter. Even if I hold the stove up and direct a lighter flame
at the bottom, it seems to mainly smolder and goes out easily once I
remove the lighter. I've only been able to do without a
firestarting tab once, when I was able to find some very dry grass and
fine dried plant stalks and the fire took right off with only one
match. A larger side opening would also make it easier to add
small pieces of fuel, which I have often found necessary.

As expected, the stove has discolored from the wood fires, picking up
sheens of copper and blue colors as well as some black varnish from
soot, in spite of the fact I scrub it with steel wool after each trip
to remove as much soot as possible. The discoloration of course
has not affected its performance in any way. The pieces have also
slightly warped outward, taking on a slightly cupped appearance when I
take them apart and lay them flat. This has not seemed to affect
either the way the stove assembles or its performance. The extent
of discoloration and slight warping can both be viewed in the photo
above.

After I've set up my tent or hammock, I usually assemble the stove and
use it as a container to gather leaves. Every once in a while I
find
it falling apart as I walk about collecting, but fortunately this
doesn't happen often. The stove remains easy to assemble,
although once in a while I have a bit of trouble getting the last piece
to align properly. This is usually a matter of just one tab not
wanting to go in place properly, and correcting it simply involves
taking that side loose and being more careful to make sure all four
tabs are aligned before sliding it back in place. Disassembly has
remained very easy.

With the
hot, dry weather we've been experiencing this fall, I've used a lot of
caution in selecting a site to use the stove. In sites without an
established fire ring and the resulting surrounding area of 'dead'
cleared soil, I've improvised in various ways to make sure the stove
has a safe place to burn. In the Laurel Fork Wilderness
semi-established site, I placed the stove on a large rock at stream
side. In other places such as the grassy site at Watoga State
Park and the duff-covered dispersed site in the Cranberry Backcountry,
I used a large piece of foil under the stove to catch hot ash and small
coals that might drop out.

One of the most interesting and enjoyable uses I've found for the stove
in the drought conditions we've been experiencing has been as a
campfire substitute, as shown in the photo to the left. By
placing foil under the stove and continuing to feed wood into it, we
had a nice social focal point in a grassy meadow where building a
campfire would not have been the prudent course of action given the dry
conditions. We were able to keep the fire burning for a little
over an hour before the coals got so high we couldn't safely keep the
fuel inside the stove and had to let it go out.

Although it has been interesting to test this stove, I have to admit it
has not always been fun. I've found there are some downsides to
the stove, mostly what would be inherent with any wood burning
stove. The downsides are really more a reflection on how a wood
stove impacts my hiking style than a reflection on the stove design or
quality. First, it takes longer for me to be able to sit down and
enjoy my dinner due to having to gather tinder and fuel and get a good
fire going. While eating dinner later doesn't really bother me,
this does leave less time for camp chores by natural light as days
become shorter and nights longer. This was a particular problem
on my last trip, when it meant finishing our group bear bag hang by
flashlight instead of twilight, and I felt badly for inconveniencing
others in our group who had to wait on me to finish eating before the
food could all be hung.

Second, I find dealing with the soot unappealing. Although I
store the stove and my pot in Zip-Lock freezer bags, I get a lot of
soot on my hands from handling the pot and stove. I've taken to
carrying extra wipes to try to clean the pot up a little at
least. Another little trick that has helped with soot control is
that I rub a few drops of Dr. Bronner's soap over the bottom of the pot
before I set it on the stove. That way, the soot is easier to
remove and there doesn't seem to be as much of it. Still, I
haven't been able to handle either pot or stove without getting at
least a little soot on my hands, and there is too much soot on the side
of the pot to drink out of it directly as I used to do when I had
boiled water left over that wasn't used for dinner. This means I
end up throwing out any
unused water instead of drinking it from the pot as I did in the
past. Not a big deal, since this is usually less than 1/2 cup
(1/10th L), and I haven't hauled the fuel to boil it, but water IS a
precious commodity in the field and I feel a little guilty throwing it
out, especially given the current draught conditions.

I'm not much of a morning person, so I've settled into somewhat of a
routine of using the S.P.S. to burn wood at night, and solid fuel tabs
in the mornings. Using solid fuel tabs does make it more
convenient and faster to get water boiling, but at 6.3 oz (179 g) the
S.P.S. is heavy for an Esbit burner. If I've used my pot over
wood
then use it over a solid fuel tablet, I have an even worse mess on the
pot bottom - soot with gunky residue over it.

Which brings me to another drawback - I don't want to store a sooty
smelly stove or pot in my home, and cleaning the S.P.S. and the sooty
cook pot adds quite a bit of time to my normal cleanup routine once
I've returned from a trip. Cleanup during a trip is also a
consideration - at the least, I need to make sure there will be ample
water to clean my hands after handling the stove and pot, which can be
a problem during the drought we have been experiencing as water sources
become smaller and more scarce.

Still, I think the stove has potential for weight savings on longer
trips or trips where I might want more hot water than just enough for a
hot meal and a single hot drink at each meal. I look forward to
continued
testing as the weather grows colder, to see if the appeal of more
hot drinks or a hot water bottle at night overcomes the drawbacks I've
experienced so far.

This concludes my Field Report. See below for final testing
results.

Long Term Report - December 2007

Field Conditions:

In late October and early November, I took the Makaira Metalworks
S.P.S. Stove on a section
hike of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in northern Georgia and southern
North
Carolina. We had originally planned to divide the trip into a
2-day segment followed by a night at a motel (and showers) and another
4-5 day segment, but due to my friend developing severe blisters, and
situations at a couple of shelters that made us uncomfortable, we ended
up spending 3 nights in a motel and 2 nights on the trail. Our
hike of 56.1 mi (90 km) covered elevations 2660 to 5220 ft (810 to 1590
m), with a lot of ups and downs in between
the low and high elevations (often over 700 ft/200 m within 1-1.5
miles/1.5-2.5 km). The trail varied from short sections of
semi-smooth
dirt to the more common rocky sections, with plenty of roots crossing
the trail to throw in a little variety, and a few rock scrambles.
Temperatures were in the 40 to 70 F (4 to 21 C)
range. The weather was dry for the most part, but there was some
fog and condensation some mornings.

Field Use:

Due
to extreme drought in the area, a fire ban had been in place
which ended up being lifted (so we were told) just before our
trip. Since conditions were still fairly dry, I opted to bring
Firelite brand solid fuel tablets to use with the stove. Knowing
that we would be facing some pretty tough terrain and shorter fall
days, as well as being somewhat limited as to where we could
comfortably camp by the availability of water, we decided to eat cold
foods for breakfast and to only boil water for dinner to keep things
simple and allow more time for hiking.

This proved to be a good decision, since we were tired by the end of
the day and really did not feel like scavenging for tinder and small
branches suitable for the stove. This is particularly a difficult chore
in designated camping areas on the AT, since it is heavily used and
most sites have been picked clean of small burnable fuel. Using the
solid fuel allowed us to have our water boiled substantially faster
than having to scout around and gather enough tinder and small branches
to fuel the stove. This was particularly nice the first night,
when we reached camp just slightly before dark, and being able to just
light a small tablet and wait for the water to get hot was really
nice. On this evening, I placed the tablet directly on the stove
and found that it dropped through the stove near the end of the burn,
resulting in water that was hot enough to use, but not really
boiling. The photo to the right shows the residue left from the
tablet, which dripped onto the rock on which I had set up the stove.

Due to
our planned stay in a motel the next night, and an unplanned stay the
third night (due to my friend's blisters which kept her from being able
to hike that day), I did not use the stove again until the fourth night
of this trip. On this occasion, I placed a small piece of foil
under the tablet on the stove, which kept the fuel from dropping
through the grate. There was a moderate breeze blowing, so I
fashioned a wind screen of foil on one side of the stove to block the
wind. I had a difficult time trying to light the tablet with a
lighter. The only way to really do this with foil under the tab
is to pick the fuel up, peel a corner of foil back, and light the tab
then quickly place it in the stove. The wind kept blowing the
tablet out when I did this, so I ended up laying a match along side the
tablet behind the wind screen, which burned long enough to get the
tablet burning. A photo of the stove burning the solid fuel is
located below.

Two cups of cold spring water came to a full rolling boil before the
tablet burned out. This was the final time I used the stove,
since we also ended up staying off the trail the final night of our
trip, due to being uneasy about some food left behind at the shelter we
planned to stay at, which some sort of animal had found and dragged off
(along with the shelter log) to eat, leaving a few remnants. Not
wanting to end up with a nocturnal visitor if we stayed, and arriving
at the shelter fairly early, we opted to hike on to a gap for another
night at the nearby motel, cold Diet Pepsi, and a big BBQ dinner.
(Yes, we were woosy backpackers on this trip - very easy to do on this
section of the AT!)

Final
Conclusions:

The slight warping I noted at the conclusion of the first two months of
testing did not become any worse from using the stove with solid fuel
tablets. The stove remained slightly harder to put together than
when it was first new, but not significantly enough to be a
problem.

I really like the design of the stove. The way the pieces fit
together, and yet come apart to pack nearly flat is very clever.
The only real improvement I would like to see to the design is a larger
opening on one side to allow fuel to be added more easily when burning
wood. Using a bit of foil when burning solid fuel tablets isn't
an inconvenience, so I'm not really concerned about the holes in the
grate, since they allow better air flow for wood fires.

I did not use the stove to hold an alcohol burner, because although
this can be done, to me it really isn't practical to pack along what
amounts to a 6.3 oz/179 g pot stand. Although I did use it to
burn solid fuel tablets, this was really only because I was testing the
stove and on occasions I did not want to burn wood, either due to the
hassle of collecting tinder and fuel or due to dry conditions that I
did not feel comfortable burning wood. Again, the Makaira
Metalworks S.P.S. Stove is too weighty to be of much interest to me as
a solid fuel tablet holder if that is the type of fuel I plan to use on
a trip.

Where the stove really shines is as a wood burner. Unfortunately,
during my testing of the S.P.S., I concluded that I don't really enjoy
burning wood to prepare my meals. For now, I am enjoying
backpacking on trips that are a bit of a challenge - either covering
many miles or having a lot of elevation change, and I've found that the
work involved with a wood stove doesn't fit very well with those types
of trips. I also found that I did not like dealing with a sooty
stove very well. Clearly this is not a fault with the Makaira
Metalworks S.P.S. Stove, it is just inherent in the nature of using
wood as a fuel.

I do think if I ever decide to start doing trips that are more about
camping than hiking, the S.P.S. might be a fun stove to take
along. I could see enjoying the luxury of all the hot drinks I
wanted to drink, heating water for a luxury sponge bath, or to wash
dishes should I ever decide to really cook (as opposed to my current
method of boiling water and pouring it over food in a bag). It
also makes a great little Leave No Trace style campfire container in
areas where there is no established fire ring. But for the
foreseeable future, I plan to go with a lighter system for my 'boil in
bag' style cooking.

Thanks to
Makaira Metalworks and BackpackGearTest.org
for
the
opportunity to test the S.P.S. stove.

Product tested and reviewed in each Formal Test Report has been provided free of charge by the manufacturer to BackpackGearTest.org. Upon completion of the Test Series the writer is permitted to keep the product. Owner Reviews are based on product owned by the reviewer personally unless otherwise noted.